School Lunch Box -- Week 1

So, the holidays are over and we are all back to routine tomorrow. January and February are the coldest months here and with all the glitz and the glamour of festivals that start from October being over, the start of the year looks kind of bleak. A new project, new resolutions seems to be necessary to push through these two months until Spring arrives and we can dump the resolutions and go back to having fun.

The last few weeks have particularly been a whirlwind with me. I went on my first solo trip to India for a cousin's wedding and though it was only for a week (or 9 days as Little Sis will correct me), there was a lot of guilt and emotions tied to traveling sans the kids. I thought someone would be miserable (me or them) but it turned out to be good though. The girls managed fine with their Dad and friends while I had a great time at the wedding with my parents. I was back just before Christmas to wrap gifts to put under the tree and welcome friends over for the Christmas break. Mostly the husband-man did the cooking but I did make a date-apple cake, chicken roast and butternut squash soup for the Christmas dinner. This was followed by Dilwale, night long adda and more friends.

Then there was the New Year's eve party at my friend's place with great company. New Year's Day was welcomed with Koraishutir Kochuri, Aloor Tarkari and another friend. The finale to the holidays was watching Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. Mesmerizing show and the experience will help us survive school tomorrow.

There has been a lot of binge eating the last couple of months and we are trying to get back to more simple homecooked meals. There is nothing that keeps you fit like a home made meal even if it is nothing but plain dal-rice. Dal and rice is not a favored option when packed for school lunch though so we have to get creative there.

 I will try to post the Weekly school lunch box menu here with recipes for reference. You need to know some thing about them:

• These can double up as dinner the night before or the same day. 
• Since I am not great at rolling parathas or rotis, you won't be seeing much of those here. 
• The lunch that I pack are all made the night before and warmed and packed in the morning.
• Also one day a week, the girls get to pick school lunch and that depends on the menu provided by the school.
• Finally, take this as a base and create your own depending on what dishes are preferred at your home.

Be creative. And have a meal cooked at Home. It is not that difficult.

Homemade Marinara Sauce and Pasta -- Make marinara sauce according to the recipe. Then follow the pasta recipe in the same post.  To make pasta with Broccoli, boil the broccoli florets separately and add the broccoli instead of the vegetables suggested in that recipe.The marinara sauce stays and can be used for another pasta dish the same week.
Add sausage or meatballs.
Need to Buy -- Organic Canned Tomatoes(Costco has good ones). Good Quality Roma Tomatoes.Basil. Garlic. Olive Oil. Whole Wheat Pasta. Broccoli.

Quinoa Pulao -- I love Quinoa and though it is not a coveted lunch box item with my kids I do pack it once in a while. Big Sis will eat the pulao made according  to this recipe though she is not a fan. Little Sis might not eat it and she will get a regular pulao instead.
Add eggs or sausage or meatballs or paneer.
Need to Buy -- Quinoa, Vegetables like carrot/cauliflower/green beans or a pack of frozen vegetables. You can be creative with the spices but some Garam Masala or Biryani Masala is a great addition.

Pasta with Roasted peppers and Ricotta -- Don't get hung on the ricotta for this one. If you have ricotta great. Otherwise just use roasted red peppers and spinach and follow recipe for pasta with Marinara. You already have the marinara sauce so why not?
Need to Buy -- Olive Oil, Whole Wheat Pasta(Penne or Farfalle), Red and Yellow peppers, Ricotta cheese

Frittata with Vegetables -- This can be made with any vegetable on hand and is super easy to make. I will make it the night before, and then warm and pack the next morning. If you have a thermos lunch box, you can cut in squares and put it in the thermos.
Need to Buy -- Eggs

Snacks 
1. This is a good season to eat Clementines. I love the cute tiny clementines from Halos and two of those make a great snack.
2. Apple slices stay good with a squeeze of lime juice and will not develop brown spots. They also area a good snack with or without nutella
3. Annie's Bunny Graham crackers from Costco are for snack this month so a pack of that will be added off and on.
4. Grapes and Cheese is another favorite snack which both my girls would prefer to have after school. Pepper Jack, Gouda or Manchiago are loved at our home.


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Baishali'r Enchor Kofta -- Green Jackfruit Kofta Curry

Enchor Kofta or Jackfruit Kofta
There was a time when if you talked about food it would always be closely linked to family.

Ma's chhanar dalna with its soft pillowy cottage cheese squares plumped with the sweet jhol, Dida'r chingri cutlet where the red-orange tail of succulent prawn peeked just so from one end of the cutlet , Boro Mashi'r jhol with gondhoraj lebu. Food was closely associated with family and recipes were mostly handed down from one generation to other, the secrets guarded zealously within boundaries defined by blood.

There were winter afternoons when that guard was let down and recipes were exchanged over fences and terraces, but those moments were rare and in between. Crochet patterns and knits and purls were more frequently exchanged than recipes. I think it was something to do with those times when the kitchen was a woman's domain and a recipe her closely-guarded personal asset.

My Mother did learn to make a variety of papad from our neighbor Jain auntie and once in a while something different like a Bandhakopir kheer from another neighbor but mostly what she cooked was what she had learned from her family. She also would try out recipes from newspapers which were sketchy and relied a lot on the cook's knowledge. Those were made with her own adaptations and so we always tagged them as ma'r recipe.

But now boundaries have expanded and we venture out to cook from books, television, internet and above all friends. Barring a few people most folks are generous with their recipes. My repertoire of recipes teems with N's jhaaler jhol, R's chicken korma, J's eggless date cake, A's broccoli pasta, S's zucchini chingri and so on. My kids often request for this mashi's chicken or that mashi's shrimp scampi.

Sometimes these recipes are more helpful than the original as they have more precise measures and adapt with the ingredients easily available now. Though not linked by blood these recipes have a tie of their own.

Today's Enchor er Kofta recipe is my friend Baishali's.

I have known Baishali from a time when we were unencumbered with social media and thus related obligations. We happened to meet through a common friend and the lovely, warm person that B is, she immediately invited us to their home.

At that time when cooking was not something that came easy to me, Baishali and her husband were cooking up a gourmet storm. I still remember the whole red snapper that her husband cooked and the baked egg she made on our first visit to their home. The food was beyond delicious and those baked eggs have been since made several times by the husband-man to rave reviews.

We still call it "Baishali'r baked dim, as in "Achha party te ki Baishali'r dim ta hobe?"

Apple Cake and a Happy Diwali

October and November are busy months. Being a true Bengali at heart( or at least half the heart as those who know me will insist on my ties to Bihar), I have the habit of embracing every other festival that comes my way.By "I", I do not necessarily mean the first person singular, rather it is a representative of the multitude "We", who do the same. However there is a fine print in all this embracing. The fine print clearly states to embrace only festivals that have a happy ending and does not involve any kind of physical discomfort, be it fasting or walking.

So with much joy we jump from Durga Pujo to Lokkhi Pujo to Halloween and then take a short break to sort through and upload Durga Pujo selfies, after which we march into Kali Pujo followed immediately by Diwali and Bhai Phota ending it with a Thanksgiving Turkey only to celebrate Christmas again in 3 weeks.

Since Thanksgiving or Halloween was not part of my childhood and Christmas was kind of like a watered poach on a soft winter day, Kali Pujo and Diwali marked the culmination of the month of joy and festivals for us. We never had a month long holiday and after the ten days Dusshera break, Diwali was a two day holiday affair. The days would be cold by Diwali and there would be dew glistening on the grass in the mornings. Dusk fell quickly in the month of Karthik and the lanes in our small town would grow quiet early in the evening with only a few people on cycle or scooters, their upper body tightly wrapped in shawls, returning home from the market or work.

Strangely it is the dusk and the quiet that I recall of Diwali. As if the Kalipotkas never existed. Diwali doesn't remind me of firecrackers, instead it reminds me of row of slim white candles their lights flickering in the light autumn breeze and the clay lamps filled with oil bravely glowing in the darkest corners of the uthon. It also reminds me of "Gharonda" -- mud doll houses and the "kuliyah-chukiyah" -- toy pots and utensils made with a shiny pink clay that was a Diwali ritual when I was still younger.

Diwali for me is all about light and clay and flickering lamps on dewy evenings. So every year, I make it a point to get the girls paint a few clay diyas. I think it would help them be a part of the festivity. And of course because it is very low hassle for me. I can just hand the girls, a bunch of clay diyas, some acrylic paint, brush and a few sheets of adhesive jewels and go take a nap. After a few hours whatever they do will turn up gorgeous and best part is usable.

• Buy a bunch of plain clay diyas/clay lamps from your Indian grocery store
• Wash them and set out to dry overnight
• Next day find a nice spot for the kids to sit on the floor and paint. Put a mat to cover the area and make clean up easy.I usually spread a sleeping bag covered with a bedsheet and then put them in the washer to clean after the activity.
• Get 3-4 bright colored acrylic paints
• Paint the diyas
• Let the paint on the diya dry
• After the diyas have dried out, decorate the diya with stick-on jewels
• You can put a tea-light candle in the diya and light it

I have been seeing this Kundan Rangoli on the internet for a long time but this year decided to let the kids do a simple version of it. I got some idea from here.

• Get this clear Grafix plastic sheet. You can get them from Amazon.
• Buy packs of stick-on jewels. Again good deal on Amazon.
• Put a rangoli pattern or rangoli stencil beneath the plastic sheet.
• Now stick the jewels on the plastic sheet according to the pattern
• Even if the kids don't exactly follow the pattern and follow their heart this will end up sparkly and beautiful.

This is also a month of birthday in my home and while my Ma's b'day is celebrated on Kali Pujo when she usually fasts, the husband-man's birthday is on a fixed date which falls around the same time. We made a beautiful apple cake for him which was in perfect sync with the season. The cake came out really really good and I hope to bake it again soon.

Here is the Apple Cake Recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I followed the recipe closely except for some little changes here and there. I added a little butter and drizzled a little maply syrup after taking cake out of the oven. It was a delicious cake with apples going all soft and sweet, and my kitchen smelled of fall, apples, Diwali and what not.

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